1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an empty container pressing apparatus which densely compresses used empty containers, such as cans, bottles, and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles so that the empty containers can be easily utilized as recycled resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
In countries where concerns regarding the preservation of the natural environment and recycling the used goods are high, various technologies that densely compress empty containers, such as used empty cans, used empty bottles, and used empty PET bottles, and waste such as vegetable garbage have been developed. As the technologies to densely compress the empty containers, the following have been disclosed.
For example, in Patent Document 1, as shown in FIG. 13, an empty container press 100 is disclosed as an easily handled machine. The empty container press 100 includes a base stand 101 where an empty container (not shown) can be vertically disposed, a guide post 103 disposed outside a container disposing section 102 of the base stand 101, a container press 104 which is vertically movably attached to the guide post 103 and presses the empty container disposed on the base stand 101 by pressing from above with a foot, and a container body buckling mechanism 105 which deforms and buckles the container body by pressing from the outside before stamping the empty container with the container press 104.
Patent Document 1 describes that even a steel can, being difficult to be deformed, can be easily stamped and containers such as an aluminum can and a plastic bottle can be easily stamped with lower stamping power than that of a conventional apparatus.
In Patent Document 2, as shown in FIG. 14, an empty can pressing apparatus 200 is disclosed. The empty can pressing apparatus 200 provides a separation carrying means 201 that separates input empty cans from input empty bottles based on mass and sends the separated cans and bottles to an empty can route 202 and an empty bottle route 203 respectively, configured in the apparatus 200. Further, a pressing section 204 is provided in the middle of the empty can route 202 to press an empty can ECc to be a plane shape, and an output section 205 for outputting the pressed can is provided in the empty can route 202 and an output section 206 for outputting the empty bottle is provided in the empty bottle route 203. In the pressing section 204, a motor is used as the power generating device.
According to this invention, an empty bottle (not shown) is separated from the empty can ECc and only the empty can ECc can be pressed into a plane shape.
In Patent Document 3, as shown in FIG. 15, an empty can automatic pressing apparatus which provides a first process executing apparatus (not shown) and a second process executing apparatus (not shown) is disclosed. The first process executing apparatus includes an empty can supplying conveyer, a first vibration feeder, an empty bottle separating device, a glass carrying conveyer, and so on which are all disposed on a frame. The second process executing apparatus includes an aluminum can carrying conveyer, a steel can carrying conveyer, a supplementary hopper, and two presses 310 which are all disposed on the same frame. The presses 310 repeatedly press empty cans (not shown) input to a pressing chamber 311, which are pressed by the first and the second process executing apparatuses beforehand with a low load by a slider 312. After this, a predetermined amount of the empty cans is hardened by being pressed with a high force. With this, aluminum pellets and iron pellets are formed.
According to this invention, by only inputting empty containers in which empty cans, bottles, and trash are mixed into a hopper, the trash and glass fragments are separated. Further, aluminum pellets into which aluminum empty cans are pressed and hardened and iron pellets into which steel empty cans are pressed and hardened are automatically formed. Therefore, a large amount of empty cans can be easily pressed at high speed under good sanitary conditions.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3494609 (Paragraphs 0016 through 0018 and 0021, and FIGS. 1 through 4)
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-179496 (Claim 1, Paragraphs 0016 through 0018 and 0021, and FIGS. 2, 3, 5, and 7)
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-177397 (Paragraphs 0009, 0032 through 0043, and FIGS. 2, 3, 8, and 9)
However, in the empty container press described in Patent document 1, in a case where each empty can is pressed by using a person's stamping power, when a small amount of empty cans are pressed, this empty container press can be used. However, when a relatively large amount of empty cans are pressed, pressing efficiency is low and a large amount of labor is required.
In addition, in the empty can pressing apparatus described in Patent document 2, empty cans can be pressed without using a person's labor; however, it is required to provide a device such as a motor that generates power to press the empty cans. Further, the pressing process is executed by determining whether a container is an empty can; since one empty can is pressed by one operation, the pressing efficiency is low.
In addition, in the empty can automatic pressing apparatus described in Patent document 3, even when trash is mixed with empty cans and empty bottles, these are suitably separated and the empty cans can be pressed at high speed under good sanitary conditions. However, devices such as motors which generate power must be disposed in various positions in the apparatus. Therefore, the apparatus becomes large and also its manufacturing cost becomes high.
In other words, in the conventional technologies, there is a problem in that the pressing efficiency becomes low when empty cans are pressed by a pressing apparatus which does not include a power generating device, further, there is a problem in that a power generating device must be provided to make the pressing efficiency high and the apparatus becomes large and its manufacturing cost becomes high.